


What Comes After

by spacedaydreamer



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: I just wanted to give them more fluff, M/M, as for the content warning it's memories from 999/decision game, but i believe in them, i tried not to make anything too explicit though, positive communication is really good, post 'to the future', post-escape au drabbles, safe end!junpei au, there's a lot that they need to talk about and work through
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-19
Updated: 2017-04-19
Packaged: 2018-10-21 00:25:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10673871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacedaydreamer/pseuds/spacedaydreamer
Summary: Even after their best ending, sometimes you still need to take things slowly. However, Junpei was ok with that- taking things slowly sounded pretty good to him.





	What Comes After

Junpei was leaning on a couch in Aoi’s office at Crash Key’s HQ, scrolling through a relatively boring email on his phone. He’d certainly been getting a lot more of those ever since working here, while trying to build up relations with new associates and informants, but he didn’t dislike the work.

It still wasn’t entirely safe, but his life was far more secure now. He didn’t like sitting still, and he insisted on still doing any investigative work himself (much to Aoi’s never ending frustration), but there was a solid difference between the type of work he’d been doing last year, and the type he was doing now. He had trouble relaxing, and he wasn’t very good at the more business-y side of this stuff, but at the very least he was _trying_.

“Junpei, you look like you’re about to fall asleep there.”

“H-huh? No, I’m wide…” His protest was cut off by a large yawn, and Aoi laughed.

“Clearly, you’re _not_ wide awake. Get some sleep.”

“It’s not that late yet, Aoi.”

“Junpei, it’s two in the morning.”

“Huh?”

He checked his phone, and sure enough, it was a few minutes past two. He blinked slowly, trying to figure out where the time had gone. Had he _really_ spent all night just reading emails? It seemed hard to believe, but the time told him otherwise.

“I swear, you’re horrible at taking care of yourself sometimes. You know that?”

“I am _not!_ ”

“Junpei, the other day I found you sleeping beside the microwave at lunchtime. I think you need to work on your sleep schedule a little bit.”

“That’s…” Unfortunately, he didn’t have any valid retort. Even if his sleep had been relatively peaceful since the decision game, that didn’t mean he was actually good at _getting_ any. He’d kept up his usual schedule of _‘I’ll sleep when I pass out from exhaustion’_  , which _wasn’t_ exactly a good plan. “Fine, you got me.”

“So does that mean you’ll sleep?”

“Well, I was in the middle of reading this. I should at least finish…”

“And then you’ll read another, and another, and another…”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yes I do.”

Aoi had folded his arms and was now giving Junpei an amused stare. He knew he was winning this argument, and the look on his face said he knew that Junpei knew it too.

“Look, I’ll grab you a blanket, ok? You don’t look like you’ll be getting up from that couch any time soon.”

“Fiiiiiine. Thanks, Aoi.”

With a resigned sigh Junpei locked his phone and set it on the end table beside the couch, shuffling around a bit to get into a better position. He’d passed out before Aoi even returned, unable to resist the call of sleep.

* * *

 

“Jumpy? Is something wrong?”

Junpei couldn’t breathe. He was staring at Akane, and she was staring back at him- wasn’t she dead? She’d _died_. He shook his head in an effort to fix his vision on something _real_ , something _certain_ , but she seemed to take it as a _‘no’_. She covered her mouth with her hands as a girlish giggle escaped her lips, and the harsh cyan of the bracelet hurt his eyes-

Bracelet?

He looked down, and saw the bracelet clasped firmly around his wrist. Junpei felt his heart start to beat faster. _He was in the nonary game again_. How and why didn’t matter, it didn’t matter; all that mattered was if he could get Akane out. He _had_ to get Akane out. Surely, this time, he could get Akane out-

He felt something hot pierce his back, and he screamed.

His back felt like it was on fire, and he could _feel_ the blood starting to spill from the wound. He tried to twist around, to see who it was that had killed him; but he was falling. His body was falling down, down, down into the water. He could no longer breathe, and water filled his lungs with every inhale as his blood stained it crimson around him. He _knew_ that his killer was watching him- but who could it be? Everyone was _dead_. Clover, Santa, Seven, Lotus, Ace, Snake, June, and now him…

June…

Akane’s bracelet was among the ones that Clover had haphazardly tossed onto the floor, and he felt himself breaking. He couldn’t take this, he _couldn’t take this_ \- it was _too much_. Dying hurt, and his throat was raw and bloody from his screams, but his emotions were gone. Much like the arm that Clover had stolen, she’d also stolen his emotions.

Junpei felt entirely numb. Ace and Snake were both dead now, but he had to find Akane. Surely, he could find her. He _had_ to find her.

But by the time he found her, it was too late.

Akane’s body was too cold and too hot at the same time, and she was far too light. She was fading- was that literal? Yes, he could see right through her, and there was someone else staring at him: Aoi.

He tried to tell Aoi that he was sorry, he tried to choke out an apology, but his mouth wouldn’t move. The anaesthetic from the bracelet was too powerful, and he couldn’t move his body anymore. It was all he could do to even keep his eyes open as Aoi collapsed on top of his body, covered in Carlos’s blood.

And he was suffocating again, but this time, it was alright. He was dying, yes, but Aoi was alive. He was furious, he wouldn’t stop screaming at him, but it didn’t matter. None of it mattered if Aoi was alive. Junpei forced himself to smile, and he tried his best to keep holding Aoi’s body still, until he couldn’t stay awake any more…

He was screaming. He was choking on acid fumes, but he kept _screaming_ and _screaming_ and _screaming_. He could feel his flesh being burnt away, soft skin no match for the acid. He could hear Aoi and Carlos screaming, but there was nothing he could do, other than scream-

“ _Junpei!_ Junpei, wake up!”

He opened his eyes to find Aoi grabbing hold of his shoulders, in the midst of shaking him awake. His throat felt raw, and he knew it wasn’t just from the nightmare… he must’ve given Aoi quite a fright.

“Sorry about that…”

“What? Don’t _apologize._ What happened?”

“It’s nothing really, I’m fine. I can go back to sleep now-“

“Oh, no you don’t. That wasn’t ‘fine’, Junpei.”

“Aoi-“

“No.”

Junpei sighed in defeat, and relaxed back down onto the couch.

“They were just… nightmares. Memories, I guess. The nonary game… and then the decision game.”

“Oh… I see.” Aoi sat down beside Junpei, looking off towards something distant that Junpei couldn’t see. “…I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“The nonary game. We knew that terrible things were going to happen, but…”

“I don’t mind, Aoi. It was to save Akane, right?”

“…yeah.”

They were both quiet for some time, each lost in their own thoughts. Junpei’s mind just kept wandering back through memories, echoing reminders of the times he’d died. Even though his pulse and breathing had evened out, he still felt a bit uneasy- but he imagined that was to be expected.

“Hey… Aoi?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think we’re doing the right thing?”

“What’re you talking about?”

“Like… the two of us. Working together, spending time together… is this alright?”

“What the hell’re you talking about? Didn’t you _want_ to help?”

“Well yeah, of course I did. But…” Junpei looked down. He honestly wasn’t even entirely sure where he was going with this, but he kept talking regardless. “I guess, just… how do you see me, Aoi? I think I’m just confused…”

Aoi let out a long sigh, and didn’t say anything for a while. It looked like he was carefully considering a great many things and Junpei didn’t want to interrupt him, so he kept quiet.

“I care about you a lot, Junpei. But I mean, honestly? I’m confused too. This situation of ours is… it’s pretty damn confusing, and complicated. It’s certainly not anywhere I ever expected to be in life.”

“Hah, same here…” Junpei gave a sad sort of smile, before looking at Aoi. “I care a lot about you, too… but, am I being unfair to you? I mean, I loved Akane for a long time… I don’t want you to think that you’re just a rebound, or anything.”

Perhaps that had been true, in the beginning. He’d wanted _so desperately_ to find Aoi, that the fixation somehow turned from desperate to romantic. However, did how the feelings _started_ really matter, if he still felt the same way now?

He genuinely didn’t know the answer to that.

Over the time he’d spent with Aoi ever since the decision game, Junpei had been trying to work through his emotions. They’d both agreed it was smart to take things slow- there was a lot of communication that needed to be had, after all. He’d been trying to understand how he felt, for both of their sakes, but he really didn’t know if he’d made any leeway at all.

“Well, I don’t feel like a rebound, for starters. And I mean… I understand. You guys were… you had something special. It’s not like things can be the same for us-“

“No, Aoi, please. That morphogenetic field stuff doesn’t matter- I mean yeah, it’s kinda true… but it’s not like it ever really happened for _me_.”

“I guess you’re right, huh?” Junpei only shrugged his shoulders, and Aoi folded his arms in thought, leaning back. “Well then, I guess… do we really need to change how things are now? I mean, if we’re both comfortable with this, and we both care about each other, do the details really matter that much?”

“…y’know, you might be right.”

“Well, obviously I am.”

 “Know-it-all.” Junpei punched him lightly on the arm, chuckling to himself. “I guess, in the end, we’ve just gotta have something that _we’re_ ok with, right? It doesn’t matter what we call it, or what pace we’re going at, so long as we’re happy.”

“Way to copy what I just said.”

“Oh come on, that was _totally_ different.”

“Sure, maybe about as different as two slices of bread.”

“You wound me, Aoi.” They both laughed for a bit, interrupted only by Aoi when he let out a rather sizable yawn. “Well, should we pack it in for the night? Or I guess, try again at it on my part?”

“Sounds like a good idea, I feel about as awful as you look.”

“So, you must be feeling pretty damn great then.”

“You wish.”

“Jerk.”

Despite his words, Junpei was smiling. There was a sense of peace that came from this- they didn’t have to hurry. They could just take things at their own pace, at their own time, and that was enough.

It didn’t take Aoi long to fall asleep, snoring lightly and still sitting somewhat upright on the couch. Junpei yawned and rested his head on Aoi’s shoulder- for right now, this was all he wanted.

**Author's Note:**

> Reasonably, I can imagine that there'd be a lot of communication these guys would need to have while on the road to a lasting relationship. However, I do trust that after everything, they'd be more than capable of talking things out. And I certainly think they'd be more than willing to put in the effort to really get that 'happy ending', now that it's finally an option for them.
> 
> I might do more drabbles for them in the future, who knows. I do really like these guys, but I am also working on the vlr au. We'll see where my mind focuses first.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
